Gaither Music Group strikes deal to partner with Primary Wave Music Publishing

Five decades after public school teachers Bill and Gloria Gaither started their own music business in the basement of their small town Indiana home, the couple has sold interests in their publishing and recorded music divisions to a New York firm specializing in the catalogs of iconic artists.

Primary Wave Music Publishing closed the deal to partner with Brentwood-based Gaither Music Group last week. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the arrangement does not include the touring or television production music divisions of the Gaither's business.

The Gaithers were working as teachers and writing gospel songs on the side when they chose to launch their own publishing company out of necessity. They had been pitching their songs to other bands and needed someone to handle the publishing, so they did it themselves.

Because of that early decision, the Gaithers have owned all of their own copyrights for decades. That means their wholly owned catalog earned immense value as the couple became Southern Gospel music legends and their songs were recorded by A-list Christian artists.

"Gloria and I were both public school teachers and we started writing songs for the traveling groups at the time," Bill Gaither said. "It was a mom and pop business that we did out of our basement. Pitching songs was a little easier chore at that time than it is now.

"It was a matter of relationships and I knew many of the gospel groups. When they'd come through the area we'd go out to eat, sometimes they'd stop by the house and we'd show them songs. Little by little, the songs were catching on."

Bill Gaither said the company resisted overtures to sell or partner with a larger company in the early days because "we thought nobody cared about the songs as much as we cared about it." He recounted that shortly after the launch of the Gaither Music Group, printed sheet music was one of the more lucrative components of the business.

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Gloria and Bill Gaither, who combined with his brother Danny to form gospel music’s award-winning Bill Gaither Trio, were in Nashville Feb. 26, 1975 to be honored for selling over a million albums. They have recorded 18 albums for Heart Warming/Impact Records since 1966 and are the first group on the label to have reached that mark.(Photo11: Robert Johnson / The Tennessean)

In the ensuing decades, the company would add a recorded music division, which has included successful partnerships with artists such as Alabama, Alan Jackson and Josh Turner for gospel music releases. The company would also add a touring business division to handle concert tours for the Gaither Vocal Group, and a production division to syndicate television programs and sell DVDs of live performances.

The Gaither Music Group became a fully functional, 360 independent music business many years before it was a trend in the industry.

The deal to sell to Primary Wave was brokered by veteran Nashville music industry executive Steve Moore, the former CEO of the Country Music Association. Moore will remain with the company as a consultant.

The 13 Brentwood-based staffers will stay on as well, including Gaither Music Group President Paul Sizelove.

"Steve got us together and we all just sat around the table, and the more we sat there in our first meeting the ideas started to flow," Sizelove said, describing how the deal evolved. "We just talked about the Gaither brand and the international and domestic opportunities of the brand and how they can expand on those.

"They're taking the legacy on everything Bill and Gloria have built up to now and they're taking that into the future."

Primary Wave is based in New York, but its founder and CEO Lawrence Mestel said the company has had its eye on Nashville for sometime. Launched in 2006, Primary Wave specializes in partnering with iconic artists, counting Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson and Paul Anka among the A-list stars whose songs the company has acquired.

"One of the things that really interested us about this deal was that we'd been looking for the right opportunity in Nashville," Mestel said.

Bill Gaither (far right) and the Gaither Vocal Band(Photo11: Special to The News-Press)

Mestel has a background working for major record labels. He founded the company to be a home for legendary artists with the goal of expanding their licensing, branding and digital revenue streams.

"We formed the company to be a home to artists who weren't getting the appropriate marketing and brand attention at their labels," Mestel said. "We have a big 12-person digital strategy team. We have a large marketing team. We run the company like a label even though we're not a label, and we have a nice-sized brand marketing team.

"So when I say we're in the icon and legends business, we're really in the icons, legends and hits business."